Ronda Chervin received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University and an MA in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. A widow, mother, and grandmother, she currently teaches philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. Write to her at chervinronda@gmail.com.

ODAY was one of the happiest days of my life. Tears of joy, like and unlike the tears of joy when Cardinal Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, even more of a surprise. The like part was joy that forced of dissent in the Church didn’t reach to the top. The unlike part is that Pope Francis combines magisterial orthodoxy with such a love for justice and for the poor. All the Popes of recent times have those features as well, but he seems to have them in super-abundance including simplicity of life. For forty years as a Catholic teacher I been insisting that it is not right for anyone to live in luxury if others are starving and here, apparently, is a Pope who makes that visible by riding the bus and fighting for social justice in South America where there is such a disparity between rich and poor and not, as far as I know, fraudulently poor.

On quite a different topic – maybe some of you readers talk to New Age people. Years ago I was reaching out to a serious US Hindu and I wrote this meditation for her that you could use also:

THEDIVINELONGINGFORTHEHUMANHEART

A Contemplative Introduction to the Catholic Faith

The Center of Reality Images:

A spinning ball of earth in a void of space.

or

A huge heart with myriad rays of love – one ray beaming into a heart with your name on it.

Scripture:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, of nakedness, or danger, or the sword? …For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

Meditation:

Go someplace where you can be alone with the phone shut off. Ask God to take you into the place in your heart of the deepest longing for love.

Dwell in the pain for as long as you can.

Then cry out, interiorily or out loud, “If you are a God of love, fill this place in my heart.” Wait as long as you can. If you don’t feel anything, repeat this meditation every day along with the others suggested.

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